Sophomore jinx

WILKES-BARRE &#8211; Bobby Hawkins has had several big wins and tournament victories in his short career at Coughlin.

The sophomore added the most prolific victory to his resume on Saturday night.

The 113-pounder turned a one-point, second-period deficit into a 6-4 victory over reigning regional champion Dominic DeGraba from Dallas.

Not only did Hawkins pull out the most rewarding win in his time with the Crusaders' varsity program, he swung those points to his team's side as the Crusaders pulled out a 36-30 win.

Hawkins, who was a regional qualifier last year finishing fifth in the district in Class 3A, earned the victory after applying the Russian to nab the takedown midway through the third period and then riding out the Mountaineer senior. DeGraba, who won District 2 and Northeast Regional Class 2A gold last season, entered the meet with just two losses this season. Hawkins avenged a two-point overtime loss to DeGraba at the WVC Tournament earlier this month.

It's a pretty successful win. He's a senior, regional champ, Hawkins said. I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now. I think both of us went out there thinking we were going to win and that can't happen.

With Coughlin's win, there is now a logjam in the race for the Wyoming Valley Conference's No. 2 seed in the upcoming District 2 Class 3A Duals Tournament. Coughlin, Dallas and Pittston Area will all be tied at 4-2 in Division I, as long as Dallas defeats Hazleton Area (1-4) on Monday.

Wyoming Valley West has secured the top spot with the division title. There's a distinct advantage not being the No. 4 seed because that team would have to face No. 1 overall seed Delaware Valley in the first round.

Coughlin enters as the hottest of the tied trio having won 12 straight duals after a 2-4 start. The D2 committee will have work cut out to break the tie.

I don't get paid to figure out (the tiebreaking scenarios), Coughlin coach Steve Stahl joked. I would like to see the No. 3 seed because we would like to get some payback for some teams down here. But we'll figure it out. We just want to go wrestle it.

Dallas, which has now been in nine duals decided by six points or less, jumped out to a 12-0 lead after two bouts on the strength of back-to-back falls by Connor Martinez and Kris Roccograndi at 182 and 195 to open the match.

After Coughlin's Jordan Phillips (220) and Brad Emerick (285) won by decision and pin, respectively, the Crusaders received a forfeit at 106 to take a 15-12 lead. That was part of seven straight victories for Coughlin, which went ahead 30-12 after nine bouts.

The Mountaineers inched close after falls from Cole Dixon at 138 and Zach Macosky at 152 sandwiched around a decision by Steve Mingey at 145 to pull within 30-27. Logan Brace then won via decision at 160 to even the score at 30-30 heading into the final bout.

Stahl was very confident that Paul Cole was going to get the job done since Martinez and Roccograndi, who both had wrestled at 170 during other events this season, were already used.

Cole answered with a fall in 3:10 over John Hutchins for the Coughlin win.

With Cole I wasn't feeling too (nervous), Stahl said. The guys just keep getting better. That's all we wanted.

Brady Butler (195) Kody Pachamovitch (220) and Dustin Jones (285) each earned a win to help Lake-Lehman net the victory and pull within one win of claiming its second straight WVC Division II championship.

The Black Knights (5-0 Division II) will win the title with a win on Monday over Nanticoke.